The present invention relates to the automation of administrative processes in a local or networked environment. More specifically, the present invention relates to a method and system for capturing administrative processes in a machine-readable format to automate the execution of administrative processes in a local or networked environment.
During the last few years, the complexity of computer networks and the associated administrative processes involved in the management of computer networks has increased significantly. Administrative processes comprise one or more administrative tasks that need to be performed. The increased complexity of the administrative processes has led to an associated increase in the demand for resources, required for the management of the administrative processes.
The resources required to manage the administrative processes of computer networks mainly comprise manpower and material resources. Manpower resources comprise the administrative staff, who are required to define administrative processes and execute them, as and when required. Material resources comprise hardware and software components, involved in the execution of administrative processes.
The increased demand for manpower resources and capital resources has resulted in a significant increase in the costs associated with the management of administrative processes. Although both these costs have increased, the increase in costs associated with manpower resources have been significantly higher compared to that associated with material resources. There are two main reasons for this.
The first reason is the increased complexity of the administrative processes. Due to various factors such as increased threats to system security, increased network size and other problems, the number and complexity of the administrative processes have increased significantly. This has resulted in an enhanced requirement for administrative staff, who are required to create and execute the administrative processes.
The second reason is that the administrative processes are generally not captured in a re-usable format by the administrative staff. A significant amount of knowledge regarding the administrative processes is generally available only to the members of the administrative staff, who create or use the administrative processes. This leads to problems such as non-availability of knowledge about the administrative processes to other staff members for re-use. Further, it may also be possible to modify administrative processes to achieve different objectives. However, if the administrative processes are not available in a proper re-usable format, it may not be possible to extend the use of these administrative processes to achieve different objectives.
A solution for this is to capture all administrative processes in a re-usable format. Further, the selection and execution of the captured administrative processes can also be automated to a considerable extent. This can lead to a significant reduction in the costs associated with the management of administrative processes. Several attempts have been made to create methods and systems, which can be used to capture the administrative processes.
WIPO patent publication WO0235315A2, titled “Remote Network Management Software”, describes one such system and method for managing networks remotely. This is achieved by installing distributed software agents in the remote components being managed. The publication discloses an extensible framework that comprises a software component framework to update and manage remote network services. This framework is implemented via Extensible Mark-up Language (XML), or any other Standard Generalized Mark-up Language (SGML).
U.S. Pat. No. 6,115,646, titled “Dynamic And Generic Process Automation System”, describes a system that provides workflow management services in a heterogeneous distributed computing environment. This invention decouples process definitions, run-time process management and process execution agents to create an object-oriented process automation engine.
U.S. patent application US20010018710, titled “System and Method for Improved Automation of a Computer Network”, describes a system and method for controlling the automation process in a computer network. This is achieved by the introduction of an abstract resource model, which comprises an automation decision-making component and an automation-execution component.
There are certain limitations associated with the use of the above-mentioned methods and systems. These methods and systems do not achieve the automation of administrative processes in a computer system by capturing the administrative commands in a machine-readable format. Hence, they do not facilitate the usage of the captured commands for multiple uses.
Further, the above-mentioned methods and systems use different frameworks to capture different administrative commands. The use of various frameworks to capture different administrative commands significantly increases the complexity involved in the use of these methods and systems.
Hence, there exists a need for a method and system that can be used to capture the administrative processes in a re-usable format, by using a generic framework to capture the administrative commands. Further, the method and system should also be capable of automating the execution of the captured administrative processes.